I M 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS* 


C.  H.  WOOLBERT 
University  of  Illinois 


I.  The  Origin  of  Speech 

THEORIES  of  Speech.  Assuming  that  few  people  speak 
well  and  that  almost  nobody  reads  interestingly,  what  is  the 
best  method  of  curing  defects  and  improving  proficiency?  The 
safest  way  of  ascertaining  the  answer,  it  would  seem,  is  first  to 
find  out  how  we  ever  learned  to  speak  in  the  beginning,  and  then 
to  come  as  near  to  following  out  this  process  as  the  fallen  state 
of  our  linguistic  shortcomings  permits.  The  experience  of  the 
race  will  be  the  proper  beginning  and  the  best  guide.  Then  how 
has  the  race  learned  to  use  its  voice  in  intelligent,  interesting,  and 
even  captivating  discourse? 

A compact  statement  is  given  by  Wells:1  “The  origin  of 
language  symbols  is  to  be  found  in  psychology  and  not  in  philol- 
ogy; just  as  concepts  of  the  origin  of  life  belong  to  biology 
rather  than  to  paleontology.  Although  the  question  has  been  con- 
sidered mainly  by  philologists,  the  consideration  has  always  been 
from  a psychological  viewpoint.  Three  principal  origins  of  lan- 
guage have  been  postulated : 

“First,  that  the  names  given  to  objects  have  been  derived  from 
sounds  naturally  associated  with  them,  especially  sounds  produced 
by  the  objects  named.  (Onomatopoeia,  'Bow-wow’  theory.) 
The  names  of  birds  and  insects  often  show  this  origin:  chickadee, 
whippoorwill,  katydid,  cricket,  etc.  It  is  possible  that  the  sound 
association  need  not  be  constant  and  direct  as  in  the  above  cases ; 
occasional  and  even  chance  associations  of  some  sound  with  an 
object  or  phenomenon  might  give  rise  to  a name,  thus  greatly 
extending  the  application  of  the  theory. 

“Second,  certain  affective  reactions  provoke  motor  responses 
through  the  vocal  organs.  ('Pooh-pooh’  theory.)  Interjections 

* Read  at  the  1919  national  convention. 

1 Wells,  F.  L.,  Mental  Adjustments,  New  York,  1917,  p.  72-3. 


56  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


still  preserve  their  primitive  mechanism ; but  words  of  this  origin 
are  but  rarely  to  be  traced  in  the  living  grammatical  structure  of 
the  language. 

“A  third  mechanism,  which  is  more  hypothetical  than  the  other 
two,  supposes  some  association  between  the  object  and  a definite 
vocal  response,  though  the  two  may  not  have  been  experienced 
in  direct  association.  That  is,  just  as  the  knee  will  jerk  when 
the  knee  cap  is  tapped,  although  it  has  never  been  tapped  before, 
so  there  might  be  a vocal  response  which  would  give  a name  to  an 
object,  though  the  vocable  and  object  had  not  been  experienced 
together.  (‘Ding-dong’  theory.) 

“Above  all  one  must  not  suppose  that  language  arose  by  any 
special  act  of  creation  which  no  longer  operates.  All  the  mental 
processes  by  which  language  originated  are  still  operative.  New 
language  is  being  daily  created  by  the  same  processes  through 
which  the  first  words  arose.” 

By  way  of  correcting  the  incompleteness  of  any  one  or  all  of 
these  three  theories — four,  with  special  creation  counted  as  a 
theory — Judd2  gives  this  statement  of  the  origin  of  speech: 

“Every  sensory  stimulation  arouses  some  form  of  bodily  ac- 
tivity. The  muscles  of  the  organs  of  circulation  and  the  muscles 
of  the  limbs,  as  well  as  other  internal  and  external  muscles,  are 
constantly  engaged  in  making  responses  to  external  stimulations. 
Among  the  muscles  of  the  body  which  with  the  others  are  in- 
volved in  expressive  activities,  are  the  muscles  which  control  the 
organs  of  respiration.  There  can  be  no  stimulation  of  any  kind 
which  does  not  affect  more  or  less  the  character  of  the  movements 
of  inspiration  and  expiration.  In  making  these  general  state- 
ments, we  find  no  necessity  for  distinguishing  between  the  ani- 
mals and  man;  so  far  as  the  general  facts  of  relations  between 
sensations  and  expression  are  concerned,  they  have  like  charac- 
teristics. That  an  air-breathing  animal  should  produce  sounds 
through  irregularities  in  its  respiratory  movements  when  it  is 
excited  by  external  stimulus,  especially  if  that  stimulus  is  violent, 
is  quite  as  natural  as  that  its  hair  should  rise  when  it  is  afraid  or 
that  its  muscles  should  tremble  when  it  is  aroused  to  anger  or  to 
flight. 

2 Judd,  C.  H.,  Psychology,  Revised  Edition,  1917,  pp.  211-12. 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  ' 


57 


“The  important  step  in  the  development  of  language  is  the^ 
acquirement  of  the  ability  to  use  the  movements  of  the  vocal 
cords  for  purposes  other  than  those  of  individual  emotional  ex- 
pression. The  acquirement  of  this  ability  is  a matter  of  long 
evolution  and  depends  in  its  first  stages  upon  social  imitation. 
The  importance  of  imitation  in  affecting  the  character  of  animal 
behavior  appears  as  soon  as  animals  begin  to  live  in  packs  or 
herds  or  other  social  groups.” 

Inasmuch  as  speech  is  most  obviously  a process  that  is  learned,  1 
the  acquisition  of  it  must  follow  the  general  rule  for  learning. 
This  rule  grows  from  the  following  sequence  of  events  always 
found  in  the  learning  process:  All  activities  start  from  random 

movements,  movements  having  no  definite  aim  or  manifest  pur- 
pose, uncontrolled  and  without  direction.  In  the  earliest  stages 
of  existence  the  child  or  animal  is  nothing  but  aimlessness ; but 
soon  some  of  the  chance  activities  bring  results  that  are  greatly 
desired  or  needed;  such  as  getting  food,  relieving  pain  or  pres- 
sure, aiding  in  the  circulation  of  the  blood  and  the  work  of  ali- 
mentation, relieving  the  lungs  of  bad  air.  Activities  that  get 
such  results  as  these,  no  matter  how  random  when  first  started, 
become  quickly  set,  first,  into  volitional  processes,  that  is,  acts 
that  the  child  or  animal  can  do  when  it  wants  to,  and,  secondly, 
into  habits,  which  whenever  the  stimulus  is  presented  bring  a cer- 
tain action  more  or  less  automatically.  Under  volitional  action 
and  habit — automatic  action — all  the  superfluous  components  of 
the  original  welter  of  random  movements  drop  out,  and  what  is 
left  is  the  movement  or  activity  that  gets  the  results  desired.  In 
this  way  it  is  that  we  learn  to  eat,  pick  up  objects,  turn  over,  sit 
up,  walk — and  speak. 

The  tongue,  the  lips,  the  throat,  the  jaws,  and  the  breathing  ^ 
apparatus  are  the  seats  of  the  random  movements  with  which 
speech  begins.  Chance  activities  of  these  sets  of  muscles  bring 
sounds ; these  sounds  come  in  time  to  be  accompaniments  of  suc- 
cessful moments  when  the  organism  is  getting  what  it  needs  for 
its  bodily  satisfactions;  so  that  when  the  same  situation  arises 
later,  out  of  the  original  chaos  of  hit-or-miss  movements  of 
which  the  sound-making  is  one  component,  this  is  the  one  likely 
to  be  selected  for  repetition.  If  the  situation  is  such  that  the 
sound  proves  to  be  the  best  way  for  carrying  a message  to  others 


58  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


in  the  group,  then  whenever  the  necessity  for  carrying  a message 
occurs,  the  sound  activity  will  be  the  one  tending  to  be  selected 
out,  while  the  rest  of  the  random  movements  gradually  drop  away 
and  are  eliminated.  Later  after  several  repetitions  with  attend- 
ant success  each  time  in  meeting  a need,  the  child  or  animal  can 
make  the  sound  every  time  it  so  desires  and  without  error  or 
failure.  This  is  an  act  of  will;  volitional  action.  Later  yet 
when  such  volitional  activity  has  been  repeated  often  enough,  the 
whole  series  of  actions  runs  off  from  the  original  stimulus  on  to 
the  action  without  excess  motion,  and  even  at  the  same  time  that 
the  child  or  animal  is  occupied  with  something  else.  This  type 
of  action  is  automatic,  the  basis  of  habit ; and  habit  must  be  the 
goal  of  all  teaching  and  learning. 

Apply  this  more  directly  now  to  the  learning  of  speech.  From 
the  animal  we  can  get  the  first  beginnings;  for  animals  speak 
after  a fashion.3  Assume,  then,  animals  eating  in  the  woods; 
food  newly  found,  everybody  keen  and  hungry.  As  the  beasts 
eat,  their  enthusiasm  and  earnestness  leads  to  all  sorts  of  random, 
excess  activity.  Observe  pigs  at  the  trough  and  understand  what 
is  meant.  Among  these  random  movements  will  be  some  of  the 
mouth,  throat,  and  lungs  that  will  produce  vocal  sounds — grunts 
and  snorts.  Let  these  same  sounds  occur  repeatedly  in  the  pres- 
ence of  others  while  eating,  and  by  association  of  this  sound  with 
the  joyous  success  of  munching  something  to  eat,  any  animal  who 
hears  this  sound  will  habitually  in  time  get  himself  set  to  find 
and  partake  of  food.  Remembering  that  speech  is  the  social 
aspect  of  the  sound-making  type  of  random  movement,  that  it  is 
sound  made  into  communication,  we  readily  see  that  in  such  lead- 
ing of  his  fellows  to  food  the  grunter  has  spoken,  has  talked  to 
them,  has  indulged  in  the  beginnings  of  speech. 

The  animal  who  learns  to  respond  to  a grunt  goes  through 
all  these  stages : primary  randomness,  initial  set  toward  getting 
a desired  result,  conscious  volitional  repetition,  and  finally  repeti- 
tion without  specific  awareness  of  its  presence.  So  that  in  the 
last  stage  an  animal  who  understands  the  signals  would  immedi- 
ately upon  hearing  the  particular  food  grunt  rouse  himself  at 
once  and  without  inhibition  or  opposing  tendencies  or  hap- 

3 The  hen  has  ten  or  twelve  significant  sounds,  the  dog  five  or  six,  the 
monkey,  six.  Cited  by  Romanes,  Mental  Evolution  of  Man. 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


59 


hazardness  of  action  go  straight  to  the  food  or  to  the  comrade 
who  thus  cries,  “Food  here  for  him  who  wants  it.”  Apply  this 
process  to  all  the  complicated  situations  of  life,  and  even  the 
lower  animals,  whose  needs  are  relatively  simple,  can  develop 
and  standardize,  that  is  can  conventionalize,  a large  number  of 
sounds  that  have  definite  and  understandable  meaning.  With 
animals  of  a social  nature,  given  to  running  in  packs,  and  depend- 
ing upon  each  other  for  food  and  protection,  these  speech  conven- 
tions increase  in  number.  So  that  with  men,  whose  needs  and 
desires  are  almost  countless  and  whose  social  disposition  is  the 
greatest  of  all,  the  number  of  sounds  conventionalized  into  mean- 
ingful conveyers  of  messages  becomes  tremendously  large.  In 
this  way  we  get  the  greatly  extended  speech  possibilities  of  civi- 
lized races. 

From  this  we  can  see  that  the  necessary  factors  in  the  process 
of  learning  to  speak  are:  first,  random  movements;  then,  in  order, 
a process  of  trial  and  error,  with  success  in  some  of  the  trials; 
next,  repetition  with  more  or  less  labored  effort  involving  imita- 
tion of  models;  next,  reduction  of  the  effort  and  increase  of  the 
chance  of  success;  then  success,  without  loss  of  effort  or  likeli- 
hood of  failure;  and,  finally,  success  without  conscious  effort  or 
likelihood  of  mistake. 

Especially  important  in  this  process  of  learning  to  speak  is 
the  factor  of  imitation,  owing  to  the  circumstances  that  speech  is 
essentially  a social  activity,  learned  in  the  presence  of  others  for 
the  purpose  of  communicating  with  them.  Watson  points  out4 
that  while  “imitation  plays  a very  minor  role  in  the  acquisition  of 
manual  habits  ...  in  the  case  of  vocal  acts  there  seems  to  be  a 
difference.  Imitation  seems  to  be  a process  directly  connected 
wih  the  establishment  of  the  act.  The  parents,  of  course,  watch 
every  new  instinctive  sound  [random  vocal  activity]  that  ap- 
proximates articulate  speech,  and  they  immediately  speak  the 
word  that  is  nearest  the  child’s  own  vocal  efforts  (for  example, 
“ma,”  “pa,”  “da”).  The  imitation  here  may  be  more  apparent 
than  real.  That  is,  the  parents  by  repeating  the  sound  constantly 
offer  a stimulus  for  that  which  the  infant’s  vocal  mechanisms  are 
just  set  to  utter.  (Conradi  has  shown  that  the  forms  of  the  cries 

4 Watson,  J.  B.,  Psychology  as  the  Behaviorist  Views  It , N.  Y.,  1919,  pp. 
3i8-9. 


60  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


and  songs  of  young  birds  brought  up  by  adults  of  a different 
species  are  greatly  modified.)  Whether  the  parents’  words  can 
set  the  mechanism  is  doubtful.  Certainly  imitation  in  the  popu- 
lar sense  is  the  only  way  a new  conventional  word  can  be  learned 
by  the  child  until  the  elementary  laws  of  word  formation  are 
learned  through  reading  and  instruction.” 

In  the  same  passage  Watson  gives  a hypothetical  illustration 
of  the  formation  of  speech  habits.  “We  will  suppose  that  for 
some  reason  or  other  a child’s  toys  are  laid  away  or  covered  up. 
What  does  he  do  in  such  a situation  ? Essentially  what  the  ani- 
mal does  when  hungry.  The  child  begins  general  restless  move- 
ments, among  which  are  movements  of  the  language  structures  as 
shown  by  the  ‘aimless’  vocal  sounds.  His  throat  formation  at 
that  stage  is  of  such  a character  that  a particular  sound  is  uttered 
frequently;  let  us  take  ‘tata’  for  illustrative  purposes.  He  begins 
to  utter  this  sound  as  he  roams  about.  The  attendant,  knowing 
the  child’s  range  of  toys  and  the  frequency  with  which  he  plays 
with  a certain  one,  predicts  that  an  old  rag  doll  is  sought.  She 
finds  it,  hands  it  to  him,  and  says,  “Here’s  your  tata.”  Repeat 
this  process  long  enough  and  ‘tata’  will  be  always  used  for  rag 
doll  and  will  always  be  spoken  whenever  the  doll  is  sought.  . . . 
In  this  day  baby  words  grow  up  as  the  first  genuine  form  of  true 
language  organization.” 

In  this  way  we  account  for  the  learning  of  tones  and  of 
words;  we  see  that  learning  to  speak  involves  a constant  inter- 
mingling of  random  activity  and  imitation.  Imitation  is  both 
conscious  and  subconscious.5  It  is  of  the  unconscious  order  when 
a child  repeats  the  sounds  made  by  its  nurse  or  mother  simply 
because  that  sound  is  the  one  it  hears  and  is  one  for  which  its 
mechanism  is  set;  if  other  sounds  that  its  throat  can  easily  make 
were  within  its  hearing,  these  would  be  imitated  in  the  same  way. 
That  is  to  say,  our  activities  are  affected  by  our  environment ; the 
stimulations  that  happen  to  greet  us  and  to  which  we  are  adjusted 
are  the  ones  we  learn  to  react  to.  So  with  the  words  and  tones 
of  voice  of  the  elders  in  the  presence  of  impressionable  children ; 

6 The  words  unconscious  and  subconscious  lack  sharp  delineation;  cocon- 
scious  is  even  added  to  suggest  the  peripheral  processes  plainly  within  the 
purlieus  of  the  conscious  movement.  What  is  intended  here  is  synonymous 
with  James’s  periphery  and  Titchener’s  primary  or  passive  attention. 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


61 


the  sounds  they  hear  are  largely  those  of  articulate  speech;  and 
these  are  the  ones  it  singles  out  to  try.  In  this  ambition  it  is 
strengthened  by  any  success  that  brings  rewards ; better  comfort, 
a quicker  response  to  the  food  call,  increased  coddling,  and  at- 
tention with  its  accompanying  delights.  So  that  as  against  any 
other  sounds  it  hears  there  is  every  tendency  to  lead  it  to  master 
the  sounds  it  hears  its  elders  use.  Such  imitation  is  subconscious, 
not  in  the  center  of  its  awareness. 

Imitation  becomes  conscious,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the 
child  singles  out  a tone  or  word  as  such  and  deliberately  tries  to 
master  the  use  of  it.  In  this  way  it  increases  its  vocabulary  and 
its  general  vocal  competence,  learning  so  to  make  new  pronuncia- 
tions and  to  improve  its  enunciation  and  articulation.  In  this 
again  there  is  the  combination  of  random  movement,  or  trial  and 
error,  and  imitation.  The  effort  begins  with  some  sort  of  at- 
tempt to  pronounce  the  word  or  to  employ  the  right  tone  of  voice ; 
the  result  thus  achieved  is  inspected  in  the  light  of  the  success  at- 
tained, and  another  trial  made  to  improve  the  faults  discovered. 
Especially  is  this  self-criticism  applied  consciously  if  the  parents 
and  friends  refuse  to  accept  the  first  imperfect  effort  and  insist 
on  a nearer  approach  to  their  standard  of  correctness.  Under 
such  a stimulus,  when  persistent,  the  child  tries  repeatedly,  criti- 
cising itself  after  each  trial  and  endeavoring  to  do  the  thing  more 
as  the  others  do  it.  Eventually  it  comes  to  the  point  where  it  de- 
cides that  the  lesson  is  learned,  and  then  makes  no  further  effort 
at  improvement.  Probably  improvements  are  added  by  time,  but 
in  the  same  subconscious  way.  From  this  point  forth  successive 
repetitions  of  the  approved  way  of  speaking  or  using  the  voice 
fix  it  rapidly  into  habit,  and  then  automatic  action  has  set  in. 
The  thing  is  by  this  time  learned. 

II.  Implications  of  This  Process  for  a Method  of  Speech 

Training 

From  such  a statement  of  the  origin  of  speech  we  can  now 
predict  what  direction  a course  of  training  must  take  that  deals 
with  the  problem  of  how  to  improve  one’s  speaking  methods.  To 
extract  from  this  the  parts  most  valuable  we  must  first  take  cog- 
nizance of  certain  obvious  considerations. 


62  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


(1)  Speech  Usages  Are  Not  Instinctive.  In  the  first  place 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a natural  speech  instinct,  no  disposition 
to  speak  and  speak  well  independent  of  a process  of  learning. 
Any  inference  that  man  is  naturally  a speaker  and  that  the  solu- 
tion of  speech  difficulties  can  be  found  in  a reliance  upon  natural 
tendencies  must  disappear  if  this  explanation  stands.  Speech  is 
always  learned,  and  unless  learned  under  what  we  might  call  per- 
fect conditions  it  will  not  be  perfect  speaking.  In  learning  to 
articulate,  to  pronounce,  to  use  the  right  combinations  of  tones 
for  conventional  usage,  to  select  the  right  word,  there  is  no  return 
to  nature,  no  reliance  upon  a tendency  born  with  man  and  work- 
ing independent  of  his  childhood  experiences.  It  is' all  learned 
from  the  very  start.  The  only  inherited  thing  is  the  disposition 
toward  random  activities  and  chance  sounds. 

(2)  Good  Models  for  Imitation  Are  Not  Common.  Sec- 
ondly, relatively  few  people  have  genuinely  good  models  to  imi- 
tate. Here  in  America  we  suffer  from  several  causes  for  poor 
speech ; among  them,  a polygot  population  giving  rise  to  countless 
brogues,  dialects,  types  of  provincialism,  brands  of  patois,  and  de- 
grees of  ignorance ; then  an  almost  universal  indifference  to  excel- 
lence in  speech  arising  from  a democratic  feeling  that  attention 
to  the  niceties  of  speech  is  affectation  and  posing ; also  the  lack  of 
a common  standard  of  excellence,  especially  in  the  way  of  pro- 
nunciation; akin  to  this,  the  inescapable  flux  and  anarchy  that 
comes  with  a rising  civilization  and  a changing  world,  leading  to 
an  almost  complete  abrogation  of  authority  in  the  matter  of  laws 
and  norms  and  inducing  the  youth  of  the  land  to  accept  easily  the 
notion  that  excellence  of  speech  is  not  worth  the  cultivating; 
finally,  from  the  wide-spread  influence  of  such  speech-perverters 
as  vaudeville,  cheap  song  writers,  and  the  newspaper  para- 
graphed All  these  combine  to  furnish  the  learning  youth  with 
examples  for  imitation  which  lead  to  speech  habits  that  are  in- 
effective, unpleasant,  and  inimical  to  communication  on  its  best 
and  easiest  terms. 

To  this  array  of  bad  models  can  be  added  the  influence  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  public  men  of  the  day.  Few  who  attain  rank 
as  public  speakers  get  it  because  of  ability  as  speakers;  they  are 
chosen  rather  because  they  have  been  successful  at  something  else 
— business,  organizing  a ward  or  a congressional  district,  making 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


63 


some  scientific  discovery,  writing  a book,  or  producing  some  work 
of  art.  But  as  speakers  they  are  the  rawest  of  novices ; so  that 
the  young  people  who  listen  to  them  and  are  given  to  believe  that 
these  are  models  of  what  they  should  strive  to  be,  gain  from  them 
nothing  but  lessons  in  inefficiency,  muddling,  and  banality.  A 
certain  newspaper  reviewer  speaking  of  the  disillusionment  that 
an  audience  almost  invariably  feels  at  sight  of  a great  author, 
says:  “A  shadowy  and  somewhat  mystical  creative  figure,  work- 

ing among  romantic  surroundings,  intrigues  the  interest;  but 
when  that  figure  emerges  as  something  not  much  to  look  at  and 
spends  two  hours  telling  a bored  audience  that  ‘art  makes  life 
pleasanter/  the  effect  is  disastrous.  Whereas  the  audience  had 
previously  imagined  the  author  as  a compound  of  its  heroes,  it 
regards  him  as  a harmless  sort  of  nincompoop  who  needs  exer- 
cise.” Effective  speaking  is  rare  enough  from  men  trained  for 
it,  and  almost  an  unheard  of  thing  among  the  untrained. 

(3)  Very  Few  People  Have  Perfect  Speech  Mechanisms :*■{ 
The  machinery  out  of  which  speech  comes  involves  'the  whole 
body;  for  speech  is  man’s  crowning  achievement,  and  is  a com- 
posite of  his  whole  state;  mental,  bodily,  spiritual,  emotional, 
intellectual,  rational.  Almost  any  affliction  that  besets  a man  af- 
fects his  speech  to  its  harm ; poor  health ; some  form  of  disease, 
the  state  of  his  mind,  dominance  of  emotions  over  intellectual 
processes  and  intellectual  over  emotional,  bad  habits,  unhappy 
surroundings  or  mode  of  living — the  whole  moral  and  social  tone 
that  pervades  his  being. 

To  particularize  some  of  these  difficulties  that  upset  the  speech 
mechanism:  First,  repressions  of  all  kinds  invariably  show  in 

the  vocal  organs  and  in  one’s  ability  to  speak  fluently,  frankly, 
forcefully,  and  pleasantly.  Repressions  are  at  the  bottom  of 
most  mental  troubles,  of  most  excessive  emotionality,  of  most 
cases  of  lack  of  control.  Bad  personal  habits  account  for  much 
of  this,  unclean  thinking,  unsocial  desires  and  ambitions.  Then, 
many  children  are  suffering  from  mental  wounds  inflicted  by  ig- 
norant parents,  from  harrowing  emotional  experiences  in  early 
childhood,  from  living  among  people  who  do  not  control  them- 
selves nor  teach  control  to  their  offspring.  Then  again  the  effects 
of  puberty  and  adolescence  are  particularly  disastrous,  bringing 
as  they  do  a sorry  crop  of  morbid  habits  of  thought,  fears  of  so- 


4 64  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 

cial  disgrace  or  exposure,  and  lack  of  ability  to  fit  into  one’s  social 
surroundings.  Add  to  these  the  mistakes  parents  and  teachers 
make  in  trying  to  advise  and  control  when  all  the  wisdom  they 
have  is  merely  foolishness,  and  the  result  is  that  relatively  few 
people  arrive  at  adult  state  with  that  freedom  of  speech  that  can 
be  given  where  the  body  is  in  good  condition,  the  emotions  under 
control,  and  the  intellectual  life  well  ordered  and  stable.  Under 
such  conditions  speech  training  becomes  positively  imperative. 

The  mental  tests  applied  in  the  army  brought  an  appalling 
exhibition  of  mental  defects  among  the  men  of  the  draft,  sup- 
posedly the  nation’s  finest  and  best.  Mental  defects  practically 
always  influence  speech ; so  that  the  revelation  of  so  much  weak- 
ness of  mind  was  also  a revelation  of  so  much  weakness  of  speech. 
Someone  has  said  that  we  are  nation  of  sixth  graders,  which  fits 
in  with  the  companion  declaration  that  the  average  mental  age  of 
the  country  is  twelve  years.  Evident  enough  then  that  we  do  not 
need  to  go  far  to  find  the  reason  why  so  few  people  speak  inter- 
estingly or  entertainingly.  What  is  worse,  altogether  too  many 
teachers  and  parents  lack  the  knowledge  as  to  how  to  give  ade- 
quate training  in  speech  to  the  sub-normally  minded ; few  enough 
can  give  the  right  training  to  the  sound  and  the  mentally  alert. 

(4)  This  condition  of  low  mentality  and  imperfect  training 
brings  out,  in  addition  to  a low  order  of  emotional  living,  a con- 
sequent impoverishment  of  intellectual  equipment,  a barrenness  of 
jdeas  and  memories  and  associations.  Some  of  the  worst  aspects 
bf  the  speech  of  the  day  come  from  a general  bankruptcy  of  ideas. 
A very  large  proportion  of  poor  usage  in  the  sense  of  ill-chosen 
word  habits,  is  the  result  of  simple  mental  indigence.  Take 
slang  for  example;  a surprisingly  large  portion  of  slang,  and 
other  counterfeits  for  effective  speech,  is  based  not  so  much  upon 
words,  as  upon  inflection.  “Believe  me,”  “Good  night,”  “What 
do  you  know  about  that?”,  “Oh  boy,”  are  cheap,  not  so  much  be- 
cause they  contain  anything  reprehensible  in  the  way  of  wording, 
but  because  they  play  one  tune  over  and  over  again,  one  melody 
cadence  or  one  type  of  emphasis.  When  subjected  to  use  for  a 
score  of  ideas  for  which  they  do  serve,  they  become  weasels  suck- 
ing the  blood  of  intellectuality  and  imagination.  They  usurp  the 
function  of  thinking  and  suggestion;  and  without  thought  and 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


65 


imagination  there  can  be  very  little  of  intelligent  and  captivating 
speaking. 

Contributory  to  this  poverty  of  the  thought  necessary  for 
good  speaking  is  a general  lack  of  information,  mostly  arising 
from  poor  schooling  and  ill-advised  reading,  if  any  at  all.  As 
a general  rule  the  man  who  is  thus  ignorant  has  a vague  con- 
sciousness that  he  has  nothing  to  say  worth  while,  and  usually 
cares  little  how  he  says  it ; while  the  man  who  knows  he  can  speak 
of  interesting  things,  if  he  is  not  inhibited  by  foolish  theories 
about  reserve  and  self-effacement  in  public  gatherings — again  as 
a general  rule — takes  delight  in  saying  them  well.  It  is  a case 
of  the  success  that  is  gained  by  success.  The  man  who  has  to 
keep  silent  in  company  because  he  has  an  empty  head  has  for 
the  most  part  the  wit,  conscious  or  subconscious,  to  know  it,  and 
so  finds  himself  more  and  more  disposed  to  crawl  into  his  shell 
of  silence.  Yet  never  in  such  a fashion  can  one  acquire  the  gift 
of  vital  speech.  Effectiveness  in  speaking  in  reality  grows  like 
a snowball ; it  aids  thinking,  which  again  aids  speaking — to  the 
cumulative  advantage  of  thought  and  speech  both. 

(5)  A Complete  System  of  Speech  Training  Calls  for  a 
Knowledge  of  Speech  Mechanics P The  vast  majority  of  people 
are  ignorant  of  how  the  speech  mechanism  works  and  of  what 
to  do  specifically  to  mend  their  voices  and  their  speaking  man- 
ners. They  are  completely  lacking  in  the  knowledge  that  speech 
is  made  up  of  components,  and  that  these  components  can  be 
analysed  and  studied  with  great  profit;  that  in  order  to  get  over 
their  bad  voices  and  unpleasant  ways  they  must  first  know  how 
the  voice  apparatus  works.  Then,  many  more  know  that  there 
is  a mechanism  of  speech  and  that  it  has  the  components  which 
may  advantageously  be  studied,  but  do  not  know  what  these 
components  are  nor  how  to  study  them.  Being  in  this  state  they 
are  in  no  way  to  get  over  their  wrong  ways  or  to  make  good 
their  shortcomings.  Let  us  pass  over  those  who  know  that  there 

8 One  situation  is  to  be  found  where  attention  to  speech  mechanism  is  not 
wise,  and  that  is  where  the  student  is  already  having  trouble  with  his  speech 
precisely  from  too  much  concern  over  the  mechanism  as  against  his  thought. 
The  typical  form  of  this  is  found  in  some  cases  of  stammering,  where  the 
stammerer  can  speak  easily  so  long  as  he  can  be  kept  unaware  of  the  me- 
chanics of  speech,  but  has  trouble  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  think  of  the  way  in 
which  he  is  doing  it. 


66  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


is  a speech  mechanism  and  that  it  has  components  to  be  studied 
but  who  insist  that  such  study  is  not  profitable;  for  all  learning 
needs  criticism,  requiring  some  apprehension  of  the  elements  in- 
volved. In  the  most  of  our  learning  we  rely  upon  subsconscious 
judgments,  a process  of  making  decisions  without  being  able 
to  state  in  words  the  basis  of  our  judgment.  This  is  what  we 
do  whenever  we  naively  try  to  remedy  a speech  difficulty,  to 
pronounce  a new  word  or  correct  an  inflection  or  master  a nuance 
of  pitch  and  quality  without  a teacher  or  a prompter.  Yet  rela- 
tively few  people  can  rely  with  safety  upon  this  subconscious 
analysis;  the  vast  majority  can  give  themselves  valid  criticism 
only  by  being  made  consciously  aware,  using  names,  laws,  and 
principles  consciously  and  explicitly  expressed,  of  the  nature  and 
functions  of  the  elements  of  speech.  They  need  a chart  that 
marks  and  names  the  shoals  and  rocks. 

Accordingly,  from  the  above  description  the  following  ways 
of  learning  to  improve  speech  are  outlined  for  us:  (a)  When 
good  models  are  to  be  had,  imitation  can  for  certain  purposes  be 
used  to  good  effect;  but  where  no  good  models  exist  the  case 
is  pretty  bad.  (b)  The  point  at  which  imitation  fails  is  where 
repressions  and  social  fears  are  dominant;  and  whenever  these 
are  present  the  first  step  must  be  to  eliminate  them,  thus  freeing 
the  mind  from  oppression  and  the  slavery  of  fear,  (c)  Yet  not 
all  minds,  even  when  freed  and  with  past  good  models  to  fall 
back  upon,  have  the  supply  of  ideas  necessary  to  make  speech 
full  and  free.  Be  it  remembered  that  there  is  no  natural  in- 
stinct for  speech;  we  possess  no  such  blessing;  so  that  a large 
part  of  speech  training,  even  after  the  removal  of  repressions, 
must  of  necessity  be  given  up  to  the  enrichment  of  the  intellec- 
tual content  of  mentality,  the  expanding  of  ideas,  the  illuminating 
of  what  is  in  the  mind  or  on  the  printed  page.  And  lastly,  (d) 
to  get  the  finest  and  best  effects  with  most  students,  as  well  as 
to  deal  with  the  most  insistent  difficulties  and  the  most  stubborn 
cases,  there  must  be  a knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  voice,  of 
the  elements  of  speech,  and  of  the  technique  by  which  one  can 
gain  control  and  efficiency.  Only  in  this  way  can  relearning  take 
place;  and  most  people  need,  not  so  much  to  learn,  as  to  learn 
all  over  again. 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


67 


Thus  it  appears  that  the  learning  of  speech  is  no  light  task. 
In  the  face  of  what  speech  means  to  the  life  of  man  it  is  fair 
enough  to  say  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  vital  studies  in  which 
anyone  can  indulge.  It  calls  for  all  the  processes  generally  ac- 
knowledged to  belong  to  all  sound  instruction  and  learning — 
ability  in  discrimination  and  analysis,  power  of  abstraction  and 
generalization,  capacity  for  observation  and  application  to  new 
cases,  and  a mechanism  for  the  manipulation  of  ideas  and  the 
control  of  the  emotions.  It  is,  in  fine,  a system  of  applied  logical- 
ity- 

For  the  learning  of  speech  is  in  reality  the  learning  of  think- 
ing. Judd7  propounds  a vital  question,  and  then  gives  us  its 
answer:  “Did  human  mental  advance  result  from  the  develop- 
ment of  language,  or  did  language  result  from  the  development 
of  ideas?  The  only  answer  to  this  question  is  that  language 
and  ideational  processes  developed  together  and  are  necessary 
to  each  other.”  Other  statements  as  to  the  primacy  of  speech 
are  given  by  Carus  and  Romanes.  Says  Carus8:  “Man  thinks 
because  he  speaks.  He  has  learned  to  think  by  self -observation 
through  an  analysis  of  his  own  thinking.”  And  Romanes9  puts 
it:  “For  we  must  never  forget  the  important  fact  that  thought 
is  quite  as  much  the  effect  as  it  is  the  cause  of  language,  whether 
of  speech  or  gesture.” 

So  that  in  learning  to  speak  a student  is  in  reality  learningX 
to  think.  Indeed,  there  is  no  thinking  without  speech.  For 
thought  is  invariably  bound  up  with  the  activity  of  the  muscles 
of  the  jaw,  tongue,  lips,  and  throat.  What  our  thinking  is  is  a 
complicated  process  of  tensions  in  the  muscle  systems  just  named. 
In  children  the  actual  words  of  speech  are  used  when  they  talk 
aloud;  the  rest  of  us  do  the  same  thing,  only  silently.  Often 
among  adults  we  can  see  a person’s  lips  moving  while  he  is  think- 
ing. Some,  when  they  assume  that  no  one  is  looking,  or  when 
they  forget  themselves — rather,  when  they  forget  others — even 
do  their  thinking  in  overt  spoken  words.  It  is  the  fear  of  de- 
tection that  drives  the  growing  child,  possessed  by  fears  of  social 
consequence,  to  push  his  thinking  more  and  more  out  of  sight 

’Psychology  (revised  edition),  1919,  p.  215. 

8 Carus,  Paul,  Monist,  XXVIII,  2,  April,  1918,  p.  265. 

8 Romanes,  G.  J.,  Mental  Revolution  in  Man,  p.  151. 


68  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


into  the  mechanisms  that  work  hidden  from  possible  observation 
of  others.  We  do  not  care  to  have  our  thoughts  read  by  our 
fellow  man. 

On  this  point  Watson  says10:  “The  reason  why  children  are 
so  talkative  probably  is  due  to  the  fact  that  at  an  early  age  their 
environment  does  not  force  a rapid  shift  from  explicit  to  implicit 
language ; they  are  really  thinking  aloud.  . . . The  shift  is  not  com- 
plete even  in  the  adult.  This  is  clear  from  the  observation  of 
individuals  while  they  are  reading  and  thinking.  ...  A 
good  lip  reader  can  actually  gather  some  of  the  words  read  by 
such  an  individual.”  He  goes  on  to  show  that  the  thinking  of 
adulthood  is  but  a continuance  of  the  talking  aloud  of  childhood  ; 
that  acceptable  social  form  and  common  self-protection  demand 
that  this  talking  be  done  unobserved  of  others.  In  time  the 
silent  talker  learns  many  short-cuts  and  substitutions,  a kind  of 
speech  short-hand.  It  is  by  this  means  that  abstract  and  con- 
ceptual thinking  is  possible,  coupled  with  the  mechanism  that 
produces  visual  and  auditory  imagery,  which  is  always  linked 
up  with  the  speech  mechanism.  But  thinking  is  inextricably 
interwoven  with  speech  forms. 

Consequently,  the  case  is  stated  but  moderately  when  it  is 
said  that  training  in  speech  is  training  in  thinking;  in  imagina- 
tion, in  memory,  in  classification,  generalization,  abstraction — 
that  is,  in  applied  thinking  and  reasoning. 

III.  Speech  Training  as  Affected  by  the  Age — Mental 
and  Bodily — of  the  Learner 

But  learning  to  speak  is  even  more  complicated  yet;  for  it  is 
deeply  affected  by  the  age  of  the  learner,  and  in  the  different 
stages  of  man’s  growth  is  a definably  distinct  process.  There 
are  at  least  four  stages  in  which  the  means  of  learning  to  speak  or 
to  improve  speech  are  marked  by  clear  and  pedagogically  impor- 
tant differentiations.  The  stages  are  (1)  early  childhood  until 
about  the  fifth  birthday,  (2)  childhood  up  to  about  twelve  or 
fourteen,  (3)  adolescence  up  to  maturity  of  bodily  growth,  and 
(4)  adulthood.  Babies  rely  almost  entirely  upon  imitation. 
Children  past  five  imitate  still  but  they  also  invent  their  own 
speech  devices  and  make  somewhat  of  their  own  standards. 


“Work  cited,  p.  3 22-3 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


69 


Adolescents  present  a medley  of  speech  activities,  some  of  them 
losing  powers  they  once  possessed  in  their  childhood,  and  others 
making  unexpected  and  unpredictable  progress;  while  they  too 
still  employ  imitation,  they  also  use  their  powers  of  observation 
and  reasoning  to  invent  new  speech  devices,  and  even  attain  at 
times  to  some  analytical,  ability  in  criticising  their  own  speech 
methods.  Adults  in  their  turn  who  need  speech  training,  as- 
suming that  they  are  possessed  of  anything  like  normal  minds, 
are  capable  of  learning  speech  by  any  of  the  suggested  methods, 
and  mostly  need  all  four.  Each  of  these  ages  needs  special  con- 
sideration. 

1.  Children  under  Five.  Physiology  and  psychology  are  very 
clear  today  in  their  teaching  that  habits  fixed  in  babyhood  are 
the  most  influential  of  all ; some  psychologists  go  so  far  as  to  say 
that  the  child’s  mental  and  moral  capacity  is  set  and  fixed  by  its 
fifth  birthday.  There  is  much  to  support  this  view.  Obviously, 
then,  speech  habits  formed  before  the  fifth  birthday  are  always 
important.  And  the  factor  that  counts  most  heavily  is  clearly 
imitation.  The  child  learns  its  speech  from  those  around  it; 
so  that  according  to  the  excellence  or  faultiness  of  their  speaking 
will  be  that  of  the  child.  In  this  lies  the  explanation  why  there 
is  in  the  world  so  much  poor  speaking  and  reading;  the  child 
hears  nothing  but  poor  examples,  and  is  given  a handicap  from 
the  start.  Children  of  mumbling,  throaty,  strident,  or  drawling 
parents  will  in  all  likelihood  mumble,  tighten  their  throats,'  speak 
in  shrill  tones,  or  drawl.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  children 
of  parents  who  have  open  throats,  well-modulated  voices,  and 
who  speak  gently  and  with  animation,  will  in  turn  reveal  the 
same  graces  as  the  elders  with  whom  they  have  grown  up.  Many 
a grown  man  finds  himself  with  a vexing  speech  problem  on  his 
hands  wholly  because  of  the  influence  of  his  parents,  or  his 
nurses,  or  the  relatives  who  have  trained  him  in  poor  speech  in 
his  plastic  babyhood. 

2.  Children  from  Five  to  Twelve  Years  of  Age.  After  the 
fifth  or  sixth  birthday  a new  influence  enters,  the  school  and 
the  playground,  which  means  wider  social  contacts,  with  more 
people  to  furnish  models  for  imitation.  This  means  that  the 
instruction  in  speech  is  gauged  now  by  a standard  of  imitation 
which  is  a compromise  between  the  standard  of  its  own  home 


70  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


and  the  average  of  the  homes  represented  in  the  school,  play- 
ground, or  neighborhood.  The  effect  ensuing  is  a process  of 
levelling;  children  from  careful  homes  are  taught  things  that 
their  own  family  shut  out,  and  those  from  the  homes  that  are 
careless  are  at  least  exposed  to  a kind  of  speech  better  than  their 
own.  The  common  effect,  though,  is  the  victory  of  the  more 
careless  ones.  Children  from  homes  where  the  parents  adjure 
the  strident  voice  and  raucous  shout  are  more  likely  to  pick  up 
these  afflictions  than  the  other  children  are  to  become  clear-voiced 
and  well  modulated. 

In  this  levelling  process  of  the  group  the  child  is  now  sub- 
jected to  the  influences  of  speech  as  it  prevails  in  stores,  business 
houses,  factories,  theatres,  and  vaudeville  shows.  Once  the  child 
leaves  the  home  to  continue  its  education  it  is  exposed  to  all  the 
common  things  of  democracy,  and  some  of  these  have  the  ten- 
dency to  bring  all  to  a common  level ; which  in  terms  of  speech  in 
our  country  today  means  that  they  are  made  careless  and  for 
the  most  part  uncouth.  All  this  up  to  the  age  of  puberty  is 
done  by  imitation ; imitation  that  may  at  times  be  conscious,  and 
often  enough  is,  but  an  imitation  for  the  most  part  unnoticed, 
unconscious.  Children  have  a way  of  putting  pressure  on  the 
members  of  the  group  who  are  “nicer”  than  the  others;  they 
have  all  sorts  of  delicate  ways  of  making  life  miserable  for  those 
who  try  to  use  the  niceties  of  their  elders.  Most  children  suc- 
cumb unconsciously;  while  others  find  it  to  their  comfort  to 
study  how  to  conform  to  the  modes  of  the  mass.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  any  school,  play  group,  or  neighborhood  of  chil- 
dren displays  the  speech  habits  of  those  at  the  lower  usage  level 
of  the  whole  group ; they  are  somewhat  poorer  than  their  average 
or  median. 

3.  Puberty  and  Adolescence.  Then  comes  the  period  of 
storm  and  stress,  ushered  in  at  puberty,  which  marks  the  divisions 
from  childhood  to  manhood,  when  the  body  begins  to  be  remade 
and  a new  personality  to  be  developed  lasting  through  adolescence 
to  adulthood ; the  years  of  strain  and  agony  when  the  new  body  is 
growing  and  the  new  personality  is  getting  its  corners  knocked 
off  by  contact  with  a newly  discovered  and  somewhat  harsh  social 
world.  What  more  natural  now  than  that  speech,  the  acme  of 
all  bodily  development,  should  in  this  period  of  reconstruction 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


71 


go  all  to  pieces  when  not  watched  with  extreme  care.  But  sad 
to  say,  our  educational  system  has  made  no  provision  for  guid- 
ing and  directing  the  speech  habits  of  the  new-forming  bodies 
and  characters  of  the  adolescent.  In  the  first  place,  the  task  is 
a hard  one  because  the  adolescent  is  about  as  easy  to  deal  with  in 
habits  so  personal  as  speech  as  a fawn  in  the  forest.  In  the 
second  place,  the  educational  world  has  not  known  how.  But 
there  is  no  escaping  the  conclusion  that  in  these  crucial  days  much 
can  be  done  by  intelligent,  sympathetic  instruction  to  cultivate 
pleasant  voice,  well-modulated  elocution,  and  a careful,  elegant 
diction. 

One  of  the  best  aids  for  the  adolescent,  especially  for  those  who 
have  had  good  models,  is  to  help  him  to  get  back  to  the  naivete 
and  simplicity  of  childhood.  Many  a boy  or  girl  who  spoke 
easily  and  directly  as  a little  child  becomes,  under  the  strain  of 
adolescence,  halting,  stumbling,  indirect,  and  harsh- worded ; so 
any  device  that  can  make  him  overlook  the  emotional  and  social 
struggles  through  which  he  is  passing  is  so  much  gained  in  his 
speech  training.  Especially  important  is  it  that  he  should  feel 
free  from  restraint  and  excessive  emotion  while  talking  and  read- 
ing in  the  presence  of  others.  So  very  often  it  is  revealed  that 
a boy  who  talks  or  reads  indirectly,  monotonously,  and  raucously, 
can  be  got  to  read  or  talk  freely,  easily,  and  pleasantly  when  in- 
duced by  some  means  or  other  to  overlook  the  fact  that  people 
are  looking  at  him  or  that  he  has  too  many  hands  and  feet  and 
that  he  is  for  the  most  part  a good  deal  of  a gawk  and  a clown. 
Accordingly  training  in  speech  for  adolescents  ought  to  make 
much  of  relieving  the  emotional  strain  of  talking  and  reading, 
leading  the  boy  or  girl  back  in  speech  habits  toward  early  child- 
hood for  a grip  on  both  the  essentials  and  niceties.  Very  often 
in  this  way  the  good  effects  of  a careful  home  can  out-ride  the 
bad  instructions  of  the  playground,  the  crowd,  the  street,  and 
the  cheap  show.  It  is  a negative  process,  but  very  effective.  For 
wherever  early  habits  are  bad,  speech  training  becomes  a process 
of  rebuilding  from  foundations  up ; of  patching,  of  mending,  of 
repair  work. 

Speech  Training  for  Adolescents  Is  Helped  by  Training  in 
Social  Ease.  From  this  it  is  evident,  then,  that  whatever  allevi- 
ates the  emotional  strain  on  the  growing  youth  improves  speech. 


72  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


Social  intercourse  can  probably  do  as  much  as  any  other  one 
thing;  first,  for  the  imitation  thus  involved — and  this  can  be 
very  powerful — then  for  the  relief  it  gives  from  the  fears  and 
restraints  which  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  adolescence.  The 
awkward  boy  afraid  to  open  his  mouth  lest  he  prove  himself  a 
boor  and  a lout  can  be  freed  in  his  tongue  if  made  familiar  with 
social  ways  and  caused  to  feel  that  he  has  as  great  a right  as  any- 
one to  mingle  in  good  society  and  to  do  the  things  that  others  do. 
Observe,  and  it  will  be  evident  that  youths  who  are  unafraid  of 
their  social  equals,  who  have  courage  to  dare  and  to  do,  who  have 
a certain  gift  of  savoir  faire,  are  almost  invariably  fluent  and 
easy  conversationalists.  It  is  reasonably  so;  for  with  adults  it 
is  patent  that  the  man  who  knows  has  a courage  and  a freedom 
not  possessed  by  the  ignorant.  Hence  a part  of  speech  treatment 
for  adolescents  is  study  and  practice  of  social  graces  under  help- 
ful influence,  thus  removing  the  emotional  complexes  that  re- 
strain and  constrict  speech.  The  rest  of  the  process  must  be  by 
way  of  education  in  ideas,  of  fertilizing  the  thinking  processes, 
of  enriching  the  imagination,  the  memory,  and  one’s  store  of 
facts.  On  top  of  all  must  come  drill  and  criticism,  practice  and 
analysis,  observation,  study,  and  much  repetition. 

4.  Adults.  Speech  training  for  adults  is  a knotty  problem, 
for  the  reason  that  speech  is  a thing  that  ought  under  best  circum- 
stances to  be  learned  in  the  plastic  days,  those  of  babyhood,  child- 
hood, and  adolescence.  Whoever  has  to  take  his  lessons  in  speech 
after  the  age  of  sixteen  is  waging  an  up-hill  fight ; he  has  to  over- 
come the  obstinate  effects  of  the  years  when  he  was  plastic,  and 
he  must  work  with  an  instrument  and  mechanism  no  longer  so 
flexible  as  it  once  was.  To  give  him  adequate  instruction,  a little 
of  every  method  known  is  none  too  much.  So  that  speech  train- 
ing for  college  men  and  women  or  those  even  older,  is  something 
of  a tour  de  force;  not  by  a good  deal  is  it  the  simple  and  easy 
thing  it  could  have  been  if  they  had  been  caught  young.  Hence, 
any  course  of  speech  training  designed  chiefly  for  young  men 
and  young  women,  to  be  adequate,  must  use  and  amplify  in  full 
proportions  all  the  devices  known  for  improving  speech.  It  must 
bring  back  as  much  as  possible  the  ease  and  urgency  of  child- 
hood; it  must  lead  to  the  unafraidness,  the  openness  of  mind,  the 
frankness,  the  enthusiasm,  and  the  freedom  from  emotional  com- 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


73 


plexes  with  which  childhood  is  blessed;  and  it  must  enrich  the 
store  of  experiences,  facts,  knowledge,  imagination,  and  even 
fancy;  and  it  must  teach  methods  of  improvement  based  upon  a 
knowledge  of  the  elements  of  speech.  Hence  the  treatment  in  it 
ought  to  be  highly  elastic,  taking  account  of  all  the  agencies 
known,  and  made  flexible  enough  to  provide  for  all  ages  and  de- 
grees of  mentality. 

Relation  of  Mental  Weakness  to  Speech  and  Speech  Training. 
All  that  has  been  said  thus  far  has  tended  to  imply  that  all  men 
are  on  one  general  level  of  mental  strength,  or  intelligence.  But 
the  truth  is  far  otherwise.  Perfect  specimens  are  very  rare; 
and — the  important  thing  for  this  study — whatever  interferes  , 
with  the  body  interferes  with  the  mind  and  interferes  with  sound 
speech  habits.  Here  is  a fundamental  rule  of  such  magnitude 
that  whole  books  must  be  written  on  it  in  the  near  future  as 
fast  as  scientific  investigation  can  disclose  the  facts.  But  evi- 
dent it  is  already,  that  defective  mind  and  defective  speech  go 
side  by  side.  Obviously  this  is  so  if  it  be  true  that  mind  grows 
from  speech  competency  and  that  speech  grows  from  mental 
competency.  Accordingly,  a study  of  speech  training  that  leaves 
out  of  account  the  factor  of  mental  strength  or  mental  weak- 
ness is  clearly  incomplete. 

The  sad  fact  is  that  very  few  people  are  free  from  bodily  de-  j 
feet,  which  means  mental  defect,  which  means  speech  defect,. 
Bodily  defects  influence  speech  in  this  simple  way;  they  are  inva- 
riably the  basis  of  either  intellectual  shortcomings  and  excesses  or 
of  emotional  excess  and  shortcomings.  And  it  is  perfectly  obvi- 
ous, needing  no  explication,  that  when  the  intellectual  or  the  emo- 
tional powers  of  a man  are  affected,  his  speech  is  also  affected 
in  like  degree.  So  that  speech  training  takes  on  largely  the  ^ 
character  of  training  in  mental  hygiene.  A speech  specialist 
can  do  much  to  overcome  mental  defects,  both  intellectual  and 
emotional;  oftentimes  by  training  of  the  defects  of  the  body 
under  which  it  labors. 

The  list  of  defects  that  can  affect  the  mind  and  body  is  one 
to  sober  the  thoughtful  person.  Such  a list  prepared  by  Dr. 
McReady,  a psychiatrist,  shows  how  largely  these  defects  are 
prevalent.  Read  and  see  a parade  of  your  friends,  relatives, 
with  yourself  possibly  joining  in  the  procession: 


74  THE  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL  OF  SPEECH  EDUCATION 


Undue  digestive  disturbance  in  infancy,  inability  to  digest  food  for 
age,  hair-trigger  digestion,  fretfulness,  extreme  sensitiveness  to  light 
and  sound,  convulsions,  early  or  late  closing  of  soft  spot,  early  or  late 
teething,  early  or  late  muscle  development  of  control,  early  or  late  walk- 
ing or  talking,  too  sensitive  in  skin  or  mucous,  thumb  sucking,  head  rock- 
ing, fitful  appetite,  aversion  to  certain  kinds  of  common  food,  night- 
mares, night  terrors,  muscular  twitchings,  tics,  bed  wetting,  tremors  of 
hands  when  extended,  negativism,  shut-in-isms,  phobies,  extreme  imagi- 
nativeness, pathologic  lying,  hyper-emotionalism,  f atigulability,  extreme 
timidity,  undue  aggressiveness,  cyclic  vomiting,  underweight,  having  too 
long  bones,  a sagging  stomach. 

For  people  affected  by  ailments  such  as  p,ny  of  these,  with 
their  attendant  mental  and  speech  defects,  much  care  must  be 
applied.  And  it  would  be  a rare  college  or  school  class  indeed 
that  lacked  a large  number  of  such  people.  In  the  ordinary  col- 
lege class  we  expect  to  see  a minimum  of  these,  for  a college  class 
is  a selected  group ; most  of  the  worst  defectives  fall  by  the  way- 
side  in  their  earlier  school  careers.  Yet  even  a class  of  college 
sophomores,  or  seniors,  must  contain  a number  of  people  who  in 
some  physical  particular  are  not  normal,  thus  being  not  normal 
in  mental  capacity  and  speech  development  also.  As  a conse- 
quence such  a class  can  be  assumed  to  include  many  people  who 
in  addition  to  having  poor  models  in  their  youth  and  little  at- 
tention ever  paid  to  their  speech  habits,  suffer  from  physical 
obstructions  to  perfect  and  effective  speech. 

Such  students  will  have  to  be  made  over,  almost  from  the 
beginning.  Teaching  them  how  to  speak  becomes  in  reality  a 
task  in  teaching  them  how  to  use  their  minds;  how  to  think 
straight,  how  to  keep  their  heads,  how  to  appear  in  their  true 
characters  before  others,  how  to  open  up  their  minds  so  that 
what  they  give  forth  in  speech  is  a true  index  of  what  they  think 
and  feel.  Add  to  these  the  students  who  have  had  gruelling 
emotional  experiences  during  the  reconstruction  years  of  ado- 
lescence, and  we  find  the  ordinary  class  in  speech  needing  much 
training  in  mental  hygiene.  It  is  precisely  this  cure  for  mental 
sickness  that  the  course  in  speech  training  can  give  to  the  young 
man  and  young  woman  who  cannot  say  easily,  frankly,  clearly, 
and  with  good  effect  whatsoever  he  thinks  or  feels.  The  class 
in  speech  training  comes  then  nearest  of  any  in  the  whole  cur- 
riculum to  being  a class  in  mental  health,  mental  growth,  mental 


SPEECH  AND  THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


75 


salvation.  Speech  training  is  training  in  the  art  of  keeping 
mentally  fit. 

Summary.  Speech  develops  by  random  activities  made  from 
the  breathing  and  vocal  apparatus ; the  sounds  made  by  the  voice 
mechanism  come  to  have  meaning  for  social  communication 
through  conventionalized  forms,  handed  down  from  elders  to 
children  through  imitation,  conscious  or  unconscious/  Young 
children  tend  to  speak  easily  and  frankly  in  the  presence  of  their 
familiars,  and  copy  the  degree  of  speech  excellence  with  which 
they  grow  up.  Later  when  they  come  in  contact  with  the  world 
outside  their  homes  they  adopt  new  forms,  frequently  to  their 
detriment.  (when  they  arrive  at  adolescence,  being  subjected 
to  the  irritations  of  a changing  life  and  a newly  growing  body, 
they  are  filled  with  emotional  complexes  which  are  accentuated 
by  their  newly-acquired  consciousness  of  sex  relations  and  social 
responsibilities.  This  emotionality  and  lack  of  stability  invari- 
ably affects  speech  habits  and  complicates  the  learning  process, 
leading  them  usually  farther  away  from  the  easy,  simple  speech 
habits  of  their  early  childhood.)  With  this  condition  further 
aggravated  by  bodily  and  neurotic  defects,  whether  shortcomings 
or  excesses,  the  speech  mechanism  is  thrown  farther  out  of  gear 
and  is  the  harder  to  bring  back  to  a state  of  ease  and  frankness, 
ijflie  business  of  the  class  in  speech,  then,  where  there  are  people 
of  various  kinds  gathered  together,  is  to  employ  all  the  methods 
available  for  reducing  their  complexes,  overcoming  their  defects, 
and  furnishing  them  with  proper  models,  training  them  in  think- 
ing, and  offering  them  drill  in  elements  and  criticism  of  their  vocal 
methods,  thus  by  all  these  devices  furnishing  as  near  an  approach 
as  possible  to  acceptable  standards  of  speaking  that  is  direct,  com- 
fortable, and  effective. 


